Teddy Lupin
by Beeezie
Summary: When Bill and Fleur's eldest daughter bounced down the stairs in the late afternoon on day in early July, it was clear that she had plans she hadn't bothered to mention to her parents.


When Bill and Fleur's eldest daughter bounced down the stairs in the late afternoon on day in early July, it was clear that she had plans she hadn't bothered to mention to her parents. Her bright red hair, often pulled back in a sloppy braid or ponytail over the summer, was hanging loose around her shoulders. She'd brushed her eyelids with dark grey eyepaint, and her lips were noticeably pinker. She'd also eschewed the trousers she usually wore when she and her cousin Fred were planning to cause mayhem for a short skirt Fleur had forgotten she even owned.

"You look very nice," Fleur said, faint traces of an accent still noticeable. "Do you have plans you did not tell us about?"

Victoire rolled her eyes. "No, Mum," she said impatiently, tucking her hair behind her ears. "I _told_ you I was meeting Teddy after he got off work."

Fleur couldn't quite remember the exact words Victoire had used, but she was fairly certain that her daughter had, at the very least, strongly implied that she _and_ Fred had plans with Teddy Lupin, which was not particularly unusual. Judging from her appearance and word choice, however, Fred would not be present for this outing, which seemed to bear a distinct resemblance to a date.

"Is this a date?" Fleur asked. She'd always felt that it was best to be straightforward about these things.

Victoire's face went bright red, but she was saved from having to answer by her father, who was just leaving the kitchen after setting the steak to marinate for dinner. "Hey, Vic," he said cheerfully. "Have fun with Fred and Teddy, and please don't get arrested - we have a nice dinner planned."

"I won't get arrested, I promise. Fred's not going to be there, and you know how Teddy is. And anyway, we're just going to the Leaky Cauldron, unless -"

Bill had stopped dead in his tracks and looked back at her. "Wait, what?"

"Fred's not going - it's just me and Teddy."

Bill studied her more closely, and Fleur bit her lip to hide her smile. "Oh. I - oh." He cleared his throat. "Just the Leaky Cauldron?"

"I think so. Maybe dinner or something afterward." Bill hesitated, and Victoire blew out her breath in a very exasperated way. _"Dad,_ it's just Teddy, stop worrying. He's boring, he doesn't like blowing things up." She spun around and headed for the door. "Love you guys, I'll be back eventually!"

"Teddy Lupin," her husband said as soon as the door had closed. "Teddy Lupin."

Fleur gave him a look. "Teddy is a very nice boy," she said.

Bill's lips were pressed together. He was clearly not amused, and the sentiment was extenuated by the heavy scarring on his face. "No, Teddy is a man," he said. "He's twenty. She's seventeen."

Fleur reached out to link her arm through his and pull him closer. "There, there," she said.

He scowled down at her. "You're teasing me." She beamed at him, and he sighed. "Come off it, you're not concerned at all?"

She considered that as she steered him toward the sitting room. "No," she said after a moment. He collapsed onto their couch and let his head fall back to stare at the ceiling.

It was a nice enough ceiling, as ceilings went; she'd modeled it after the view from the forest floor in the woods near her childhood home, which she'd spent entirely too much time in growing up and was probably quite lucky to have never encountered anything worse than a stray erkling. However, it was neither remotely new nor worth the attention Bill was giving it.

"This should not come as a surprise," Fleur pointed out. "You have been expecting it since last summer, I think."

He shrugged. "She's seventeen," he repeated. "She's still in school. Teddy Lupin has no business going out on a date with her."

"You started dating me when I was eighteen and you were twenty-five."

He snorted and let his head fall to the side to gaze at her. "Sweetheart, that comparison does not fill me with confidence."

That made her laugh. She leaned over to brush her lips against his, and he finally managed a genuine smile.

Bill had always been able to make her laugh. It was one of the things that had made her like him most when they'd first met, and it had definitely contributed to the wandering hands and stolen kisses that had marked their first month of 'English tutoring' and their yanking each other into bed shortly thereafter.

"And anyway, you weren't in school anymore. It was different."

"And you were twenty-five, not twenty."

He made a face. "Yeah, well, that was just as well. If I'd been twenty, I'd probably have gotten myself fired for having sex with you in my office because I didn't have the patience to wait ten minutes. _You_ certainly weren't helping the situation."

In her defense, it had been after hours while they were doing their 'tutoring' - but she'd definitely done her very best to seduce him in his office on multiple occasions. "Well, we _did -"_

"That was once!" She made a noncommittal noise. "Oh, fine. Twice. But is that _really_ an example you want our daughter to emulate?"

Fleur considered that. "No," she said after a moment. "But she won't. It's just a night at the Leaky Cauldron."

"That's always how it starts," Bill said darkly.

They heard the heavy thud of footsteps on the stairs, and Fleur wondered - not for the first time, and certainly not for the last - how her younger daughter managed to make quite so much _noise_. Dominique had inherited the veela looks; she had not inherited their grace.

After a minute, she wandered into the room. "Hey," she said cheerfully. "Did you _see_ Vic?"

Fleur glanced at Bill, whose lips were pursed together again. She chose not to point out that he was starting to bear a marked resemblance to the Hogwarts Headmistress. "We did," he said after a moment.

"Teddy's a bit stiff, but she really likes him for some reason, so I hope it goes well." She fell into the chair she'd been sitting in the night before and pulled on the shoes she'd kicked off and abandoned there. "Anyway, I'm going to the Arrows match with Hannah and Lacey and Hackerly. _Yes,_ Dad, Aunt Ginny is going to be there, too, calm down. I'll be back later."

When she yanked the door closed, Bill sighed. "Teddy Lupin. I _told_ you we needed to keep an eye on him."

"Yes, dear."

"You're teasing me again."

"You still deserve it."


End file.
